The roll-out of the new recycling scheme is well underway. The coastal towns of Seaford, Newhaven and Peacehaven etc have all received a new recycling bin and are benefiting from the much-expanded recycling service. For more details of the service CLICK HERE

The Lewes District Council scheme is separate to the East Sussex County Council recycling centres where you take your recycling and rubbish including such things as electrical goods, old fridges and bikes as well as garden waste. For more information on the county services and their proposed changes click here

Current status of the programme for roll-out of the full co-mingling service:

the new service is currently being rolled out in my council ward – Kingston Ward (Piddinghoe up to Kingston). See my recent post: click here

The next area will be Lewes which should roll-out in April.

All other areas will follow and be completed by July.

Some people have commented they don’t like the blue lids. I agree but I am pleased the new service is coming into operation. It has taken me over two years of badgering to get the Conservatives to implement a recycling scheme which will help us reduce the amount of plastic waste sent to the incinerator and help lift us off the bottom of the council league tables for recycling. When I joined the council we were down at 24% whereas other councils around the country were achieving around 50%. We are now steadily climbing the league tables and I’m sure we will well exceed the 30% which is where we are at the moment within the next few months!

What can you recycle?

Here is a summary from the LDC leaflet:

If you can’t take the 240 L bin you can ask the council to give you a smaller bin – 140 L. If you have any queries or need assistance telephone 01273471 600 and press option 4 and then option 1.

Residents who can’t manage a wheelie bin can continue to use their existing containers (a combination of black boxes and bags) for recycling. If residents are using their existing recycling boxes and bags the advantages are that they can mix up what they’re putting in those containers after the roll-out has been carried out in their area.

So, what about the rest of the rubbish? In summary, there are two scenarios:

Those residents who can’t take a wheelie bin:

Recycling – residents can continue to use their existing recycling bags and boxes for the full ‘co-mingling’ recycling service.

Residents can use any receptacle for their ordinary waste but there may be an opportunity for the whole street to get a free bag (green) for their ordinary waste. This would only be issued where households cannot take any type of bin and where there is high gull/vermin activity. This has the advantage that it will be very difficult for vermin and gulls to break open the bag. This should keep the streets a lot cleaner in places where there are terraced houses and flats.

Food waste – residents can continue to use their existing food waste bins. This service does not change.

In coordination with the roll-out of the full co-mingling service ‘bring’ sites are being upgraded. This has already happened in some of the coastal towns.

‘Bring’ sites are also being upgraded with a large bin to take tetra packs and coffee cups – see the example picture below.

The number of ‘bring’ sites will be reviewed as part of the current review and roll-out programme.

Councillor Vic Ient and LibDem campaigner and environmental spokesperson for the Lewes Town Liberals, Oli Henman, visiting one of ‘bring’ sites which has been equipped with one of the new recycling bins which will take ‘tetra packs’ at the car park near the precinct in Lewes

Many residents in Kingston Ward (Falmer – St Ann Without – Kingston – Swanborough – Iford – Northease – Rodmell – Southease – Piddinghoe) will have had an envelope delivered to their homes entitled “The way you recycle is changing.” Inside there is a letter to residents saying that your new recycling bin will be delivered in the next few weeks. Yesterday I had a meeting with the recycling team at the district council and have been informed that bins will arrive very soon:

Falmer – Monday 5 March

Piddinghoe, Southease & Rodmell – Wednesday, 7 March

Kingston and Iford – Monday, 12 March

The parish of St Ann Without will be split into two – the Ashcombe area (A27) is likely to be done with Falmer. The racecourse area will be done with Lewes in April.

These dates are subject to change but provided all goes well these dates will hold.

The council will deliver the 240 L bin. If you need a smaller bin or can’t take a wheelie bin at all, please contact the council on 01273 471600. Press option 4 followed by option 1 when the auto answer system starts. A 140 L bin is available but there will be a delay of at least a month. Hopefully, in the meantime, you can use the 240 L bin.

If you have any other questions or queries, please contact the council on 01273 471600 Press option 4 followed by option 1 when the auto answer system starts.

After two years of campaigning since the election in 2015 the Liberal Democrats are finally succeeding in getting the Conservative controlled Lewes District Council to implement the much-needed new recycling scheme. The new scheme will allow all recycling to be put in the one bin! . Many more plastic items can be recycled helping with the Lib Dem campaign for a #PlasticFreeLewes Residents will have the choice of having two sizes of recycling wheelie bins plus an option of continuing to use their old containers. The Liberal Democrats want the Council to go further with curbside collections and provide gull/vermin proof bags for both recycling and general waste to those residents who can’t accommodate the large bins. Typically this is for those who live in terraced houses, in flats and those with disabilities who can’t manage a large bin. Vic Ient said “We have succeeded in getting a trial started in Lewes for the new gull proof bags and if successful I hope we can convince the conservative administration to include this as a standard option for all residents.”

In the photograph below Liberal Democrat District Council Environment Spokesman Cllr Vic Ient is with District Cllr Will Elliott (Bridge Ward) and environment campaigner, Oli Henman (who is also the Liberal Democrat Candidate in the Lewes town Council elections), reviewing the new recycling scheme.

The roll-out of the new recycling service has started in the coastal towns and will come to the villages in the Lower Ouse Valley in March followed by Lewes Town in April 2018.

The new 240 litre green wheelie bins with a blue lid will replace the old assortment of boxes and bags currently used by residents for their recycling. With the new service much more can be recycled. If one of the new 240 litre bins (pictured) is too big, residents can ask for a smaller bin. The service should be completely rolled out by July 2018.

Local Lewes Liberal Democrats are calling for a ‘Plastic Free Lewes’. They are asking for a ban on non-biodegradable coffee cups, a plastic bottle return scheme and the provision of recycling bins for the different types of plastic waste. This is part of the Liberal Democrats’ long-term national campaign to persuade the government to move over to biodegradable packaging and rid our country of the blight of plastic pollution and litter. Thankfully, in the autumn budget, the Conservative Chancellor has taken a small step forward on plastic pollution. He’s going to carry out an investigation into charging for single use plastic. Not exactly dynamic but welcomed nevertheless!

“There is national recognition that plastic waste is a major environmental challenge, blighting our landscapes and poisoning our seas,” said Oli Henman, an environmental campaigner and Lewes Lib Dems Town Council candidate.

Some 2.5 billion* disposable cups are used annually in the UK. As many will know the scourge of our roadsides and streets is the takeaway coffee cup. It is local councils that have to clear up the mess and to make matters worse these coffee cups are mostly not recyclable. I would like to cut litter clean up costs by both getting people not to throw them away but also to make them biodegradable! We have heard of initiatives by Costa Coffee in big cities to include a special waste bin for their coffee cups in their stores. Well why not here in the Lewes District? But, moreover, let’s try and persuade all businesses in the Lewes area to both provide better recycling facilities and to use biodegradable cups? The range* of biodegradable cups has increased over recent years.

*That’s 2,500,000,000 !!

Reducing take-away coffee cup litter & help clean up our environment

In February this year (2017) I asked Lewes District Council to implement an initiative with local businesses to move over to bio-degradable containers and they agreed! Watch what I said – click here . Sadly the Conservative controlled council have done nothing for the last 6 months. Perhaps they were following Tory Central Office guidance. The Conservative Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom, earlier this year exempted takeaway coffee cups from a new anti-litter “taskforce”! Last month, in July, I took the matter up with Cllr Paul Franklin Cabinet Member for Waste and Recycling. Perhaps now the Conservatives will get on with the promotion to local business!

Thankfully, there are local business who already use bio-degradable cups like the one in coffee shop in Lansdown Place , Lewes. I would like to hear from all the businesses locally who use bio-degradable cups! Just contact me by clicking here.

* There are a number of companies who make fully recyclable cups including:

Major leap forward in recycling planned for 2018! Trial due this autumn (2017).

When I was first elected in May 2015 to the Lewes District Council I was asked by the Liberal Democrat group if I would ‘shadow’ the Conservative Lead Member for Waste and Recycling. I was glad to accept this role as I have long thought that the Lewes District Council were dragging their heels in this area. So at various council meetings I began to bang on about the disastrous state of recycling levels in the district.

There are multiple reasons as to why recycling rates are low and here are some examples: outdated vehicle design, outdated recycling facilities and a lack management focus. However, there has been some progress during 2015 and 2016. The long-awaited food recycling bins have been a success but we still need to convince more people to use them. [See: benefits of food waste recycling] Also, the garden waste service is now being rolled out district wide. Also during last year the council undertook a survey of householders’ views because the previous Conservative leadership were favouring the idea that normal collections should happen every two weeks and not weekly. My colleague, Steve Saunders (LibDem Newhaven) raised serious concerns about this asking, ‘how would mothers deal with the problem of having to store dirty nappies for two weeks before they were collected?’. The following survey of residents’ views revealed that people wanted to keep the weekly collections and the idea of fortnightly collections has been dropped.

However the recycling figures are still very low. The most recent report shows a figure of 27%. When I was elected I got complaints about the limited range of recyclable materials. I call it the ‘yoghurt pot question‘. I still get these complaints. So, what’s happening?

Thankfully we have got a new Chief Executive and Director of Service Delivery. Also, we have a new Council Leader, Andy Smith. These people are more receptive to improvements and change.

During the tail end of last year the District Council appointed a project manager to oversee improvements. We are now beginning to get more frequent reports and there are two proposals currently on the table: improvements to the collection service and to the recycling facilities. This is not to do with the stuff we take to the dump. It’s to do with what happens to the stuff after it collected from your doorstep. Radical changes are needed in both of these areas in order to improve the recycling rates.

Vic Ient

At the recent Cabinet meeting I asked three questions:

The report didn’t include any dates showing when the recycling service would be introduced. So I asked ‘when?’ The answer came back that there would be a trial this autumn and the implementation would be in 2018. I’m certainly going to follow up to make sure that the Conservatives stick to these figures.

The report also was not very specific about improving the range of materials that can be recycled. So I asked a question and got a commitment to a significant increase including things like yoghurt pots and tetra packs. Again, I will be following up to make sure those improvements are implemented.

Thirdly I asked a question about improving and simplifying the containers which householders have to use for recycling. I want the council to learn from other leading councils and implement a co-mingling system so that we only have to have one bin for most of the recycling. (Glass will still have to go in a separate bin). I also want the council not to force everybody to have large wheelie bins. I got a commitment to (a) study what other successful councils are doing and (b) offer a range of containers suitable for the householders’ property.

Question 1: The report indicates some of the long-awaited changes to improve the disastrously low recycling rate within the Lewes District Council area. The one in this report refers to the adoption of co-mingling recycling collections however it does not mention when the new service will be introduced. Could the Lead Member please advise of the programme including target dates for the introduction of co-mingling?

Question 2: The move to co-mingling is, as I have said, an improvement and will help avoid the plethora of bags that a resident has to leave outside their house. However no mention is made of any improvement to the range of material that a householder can recycle. There have been previous reports but I think it’s appropriate that with these proposed changes we see some benefits by increasing the range of recycled items. Could the Lead Member please provide members and the public with a schedule showing what new items will be included in the recycling list?

Question 3: In connection with the adoption of co-mingling the report mentions the provision of recycling containers including 240 L Wheelie bins and lidded bins and later on in the report there is a mention of the possibility of introducing gull proof sacks and clear recycling bags. Thankfully we have moved, in most cases, away from black plastic bags which were often ripped apart by vermin and gulls before the refuse collection team arrived in the area. Therefore I’m particularly concerned to read in the report mention of plastic bags. This is a retrograde step. 240 L bins for mixed recycling items are very suitable for householders who have the room to store them but that does not apply to every householder. Other than the 240 L bin , it is unclear from the report exactly what the range of new bins and recycling containers will be. Please could the lead member review what other successful councils in coastal regions have done in providing a coordinated set of bins and vermin/gull proof heavy duty, ‘heavy lidded bags’ and bring back to the committee a firm proposal for their introduction in the Lewes District?

It has been a long time coming but I’m pleased to announce that as from mid April this year the garden waste collection will be rolled out to residents in my ward which includes: Falmer, St Ann Without, Kingston, Swanborough, Iford, Northease, Rodmell, Southease & Piddinghoe. Not only will it save residents’ time and effort of taking garden waste to the tip, but it will reduce car journeys and therefore C02 emissions. The garden waste service is an optional service and so if you want to use the service please sign up for it, – just click on the image to the left and it will take you to the Lewes District Council page which explains the service and at the bottom of that page you will find a link to thesignup page. That’s the good news! However the service is not free, like other councils around the country LDC charge for the service which operates currently 10 months of the year. During February residents will receive a leaflet offering the service which will contain information about signing up.

Once signed-up the council will provide you with a 240 litre garden waste wheelie bin and a calendar showing your fortnightly collection dates. Also if you need help with the wheelie bin you can apply for assisted collections. All details are on the council web page.